First time ball python owner

[Walkingdragon]

Husbandry = maintaining correct temperatures and humidity inside of your BP's enclosure. If they're too low, at best he'll end up going off of food and having crappy sheds, at worst he'll end up with a respiratory infection.

So, you have a tank with a light. Do you have a cover on the tank? Because if not it's a given your humidity will be way too low. A UTH on a thermostat to create a hot spot about 90*F on the floor of the tank is a better option. Put one hide over the UTH, and another in a cool part of the tank, so he can thermoregulate.

Also, light tends to stress out ball pythons, in the wild they spend the day underground in termite mounds, and they hunt at night. If you need the light to maintain ambient temperature in the tank, replace the bulb with either a red one or a ceramic heat emitter (but you'll still have the low humidity issue).

I have both a UTH and heating lamp, I turn the lamp on and off during the day depending on the internal temp of the tank and I give him enough water (about 1-1 1/2 inches) to maintain humidity, if the air in the tank begins to feel dry, I lightly mist the tank down as to not over-dampen the substrate too much. I don't have a second hiding spot yet but he curls up under the branch when he goes to cool down and as for the cover it's a screen top and I put a thick towel on the cool side as to retain heat and moisture (?) in the tank.